


Daughters

by lazyroughdrafts



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Warehouse 13, Bering & Daughters, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-21 07:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2460671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazyroughdrafts/pseuds/lazyroughdrafts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Myka Bering has a type. It might not have been immediately obvious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Non-Linear/Non-Chronological Story set in a universe where Warren Bering hastily remarried a charming English Literature Professor from South London after the death of his first wife when Myka is 7 months old. Leena is her sister. Claudia is her daughter and HG Wells as always is her one true love. 
> 
> Anna Deavere Smith is my inspiration for the character of Annette Bering (who Claudia refers to as Grams).

Claudia who occasionally refers to herself as the "oops baby," despite the fact that she was adopted and very much aware of it, has only recently eased into saying 'Mom' in public sans snark.

 

It was actually a lengthy tirade against Todd for openly oggling Myka that caused the perhaps Freudian slip to occur in the first place. Todd who was too overcome at the sight of the leggy brunette approaching them wearing skinny jeans and a white V-neck, wasn't saying much of anything in his defense.

 

He barely sputtered, "But she's like insanely hot, like _insanely_."

 

Which was probably the single worst thing for his twelve-year-old self to say to his still fuming twelve-year-old sort of girlfriend. It was more an invitation to homicide than anything else.

 

It did unwittingly however, provoke the shift in vocabulary as the red-head gave him dagger eyes and a punch in the arm, "Gross Todd. Stop mentally undressing my mom." He didn't stop. "You don't and you're dead," she'd added. Even then he wasn't able to tear his hormone-charged eyes away from the curly-haired woman whose lengthy strides had fast closed the distance between them. The plunging neckline did nothing to dissipate the raging of certain chemicals currently unconducive to keeping the peace. So naturally, when Myka dipped to grab Claudia's guitar case, Todd's gaze followed.

"I will bury you," Claudia threatened between her teeth for further emphasis.

 

Three years later when she is giving Myka some lip for not being given permission to pierce her eyebrow, the ship will long have sailed on its usage, and therefore irreversible. There will be slamming of doors and words, but Myka will calmly infuriate her with, "You may not have sprung-forth from my loins, as you so elegantly pointed out, but you are still my daughter and I'm saying no for the time being." Myka will hear her yell, "It's my frakking body mom!" And it will be entirely too late for anything but an affectionate smirk to trump exasperation. "Exactly. Mom being the operative word." She will retort and something very like pride will surface despite the outburst. And so, when it first happens, Myka is greeted by a scowling pre-pubescent who all but ignores the "Sorry I'm late sweetie...rough day?"

Todd who would have died several times over if Claudia in fact did possess even minor psychokinetic abilities, turns bright red when Myka ruffles his hair in acknowledgement. This landmark moment passes by without fanfare as Claudia grabs Myka's hand to lead her as far away from her soon-to-be sort of ex-boyfriend as she can on feet, or wherever the car is parked, "We're not talking about it Mom."

 

.............

 

One day what they will talk about, what Claudia will so astutely observe is that, "Uh, yeah, you TOTALLY have a type Mom. When it comes to women, yeah. Like gross but yeah you have a very specific type."

 

Myka will look at her like she is high on mushrooms and worshipping a stapler as the second-coming of Brian. Claudia will look at her like s _tars above how haven't you noticed this about yourself already_.

 

"You so do. They either have sexy English accents or they're women of color or sometimes they're all of the above."

 

Myka will glare.

 

"It's totally Oedipal."

 

Myka will continue to glare.

 

"Is Grams flattered or freaked out by your less than obvious hero-worship?"

 

Myka will start to say something then stop abruptly. "Oh my God." She will bury her head in her hands as a tell-tale flush climbs up her neck.

 

With a dramatic sigh, Claudia will reach out and place a hand on her shoulder, nodding sympathetically, "It's a lot to process."

 

And then the tables will turn as a sudden realisation dawns on Myka and she looks up to face her daughter with an extremely self-satisfied smirk.

 

"What?" Claudia will grow visibly unsettled as Myka mimics her earlier gesture and just as dramatically places a hand on her shoulder in mock-sympathy.

"Think about it sweetie."

 

And then it will dawn on Claudia that a certain very hot sixth-former looks a lot, like freakishly a lot, like her mom and her mom's girlfriend's wouldbe lab-created love child.

 

"Fraakk."

 

And then H.G. who will have been pretending to be absorbed in responding to twenty-four of the most urgent emails flooding her inbox in the last five minutes will quip from the dining table, "It's certainly a lot to process darling."

 

Christina thankfully will not be able to weigh in with her two-cents due to the noise-cancelling headphones covering her 8-year-old ears. When she does finally look up from the book she is reading (Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection), it is to catch Claudia sulking into her laptop and Myka looking infinitely pleased with herself. "I've missed something terribly important, haven't I?"

She will ask lowering her headphones and turning round to face her mother as she does so. Her mother will only wink at her looking thoroughly amused.

 

.............

 

"Walter had it coming. So did Sally." Is what Leena says as soon as she walks through the door. Myka who is two beats behind her runs upstairs greeting her mother with a mostly inaudible, " _Hi Mama I have a history paper due tomorrow and I'm not really hungry so I'll just be upstairs_ " shuts the door behind her and hides in her room.

 

Leena drops her bag and kicks off her white Vans making her way to the kitchen in striped socks of various shades of pink and grabs an apple from the fruit bowl.

 

"What happened?" Annette Bering looks up in the direction of Myka's room as if she has x-ray vision. Before she can take a second bite her mother gently curls her fingers round her left wrist. "Leena." Annette arches her brow in that way.

 

"She was defending your honor." Leena looks very serious about it. "She defended it really well actually." And then almost gleefully as if she's reliving the moment, "Like really well." She shifts the apple to her right hand and takes another bite, "Even Mrs. Lattimer said so and I quote...That little shit deserved every---"

 

"Leena..." Her mother interrupts her sounding very exasperated by now and thoroughly confused as to what could have caused the very ladylike Principal of Myka's school to express herself in front of the kids in such a manner. "Trust me Mommy. You would've agreed with her." Is the only thing she offers freely before chewing thoughtfully. Annette crosses her arms and says her name sounding very South London now that her patience is growing thin and not at all like her normally very Oxbridge-sounding self,

"Leena Miranda Bering."

 

"Myka made me promise I wouldn't say anything." She lowers the apple to her side. Her big hazel eyes silently pleading with her not to make her betray her sister. "She was just sticking up for you and dad." She hesitates when she mentions her father, her lower lip trembling. "He would've been so proud of her. I just know it."

 

Annette gently takes the apple from Leena and places it on the counter before drawing close. "It's alright love. It's alright." She places a hand on her head, twining her fingers in her hair as the girl cries into her skirt before gently lifting her chin.

 

"Darling, tell me exactly what happened."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're wondering what this is. I am too. I am wondering even more than you are wondering.

Myka had never asked.

 

In the wake of certain revelations concerning the state of her marriage she found herself thinking on the dirty insinuations that had hung over her childhood like storm clouds. She had never told Mama exactly what happened outside Artie's that day. And Leena could not be caused to betray her older sister for no will of heaven. And God knows Annette would never have stooped to threaten hell.

 

In the end, it was a slip of the tongue by Pete that forced an exasperated Jane Lattimer to speak.

"I'd a floored Evil and Eviler too if they said my folks couldn't keep it in their pants long enough to...Oww...just sayin Mykes did good...you even said...Oww Ma that hurts a lot more than you think it does..."

 

The circumstances of which, tight-lipped as all the credible witnesses may have been, were then fully revealed.

 

What with all the "It didn't happen on school property" and "Well, I didn't really see anything" and "Oh it was just a little healthy rough-housing, kids ya know."

 

Annette would later consider that it must be very like how the Mob would have handled things. With a small glass of port after dinner, a shake of the head and a click of the tongue, she would remember the incident with less chagrin than pride.

 

Myka, for her part, would never have asked if it hadn't been for that nail- in-the-coffin conversation with Sam. It stirred up a world of hurt she did not know was still lurking the corners. Sam who dropped the bomb almost casually after a prolonged business trip. He said his peace wearing his third-best suit and his signature puppy dog look, the one Claudia dubbed 'extremely gag-worthy'.

 

.............

 

"Mama." And Annette knows, knows her daughter and that tone.

 

"Darling what's wrong?"

 

But Myka can't get her words out. Annette hears her breathing turn ragged.

 

"Can we come home?"

 

"Of course love. You can always come home."

 

"Mama." Her voice breaks. Her mother's heart breaks with hearing it.

 

"Was there any truth in it. In the gossip?" Myka bites down on her thumb before she lowers her palm and worries round her collar bone. "You and dad...I never believed it. I just--I'm sorry Mama."

 

"Baby. Baby listen to me. It's alright to ask." Annette sighs but it is quiet. They are an ocean apart. The lights are on but doors are closed for the evening, the sign indicating as much to the foot traffic outside Bering & Daughters. "There is no truth to them my love. You know the story as it is." Her voice is gentle. Soothing. It is also laced with an almost too tired sadness.

 

Myka does know the story.

 

"I'm sorry Mama."

 

"Me too my darling." She says more to herself, a whisper, before adding, "Come home."

 

.............

 

He circles the round the issue for a while.

 

The images of buzzards circling above a doomed and wounded animal tease Myka's thoughts as Sam talks and talks and talks. It's all very Discovery Channel as she tunes out his static.

 

He is a talking head. He is talking lips. Lips moving to free sound.

 

And then he comes round to it. He has met someone else. Someone from the Chicago office. And this has been going on for over a year.

 

"This isn't anyone's fault. I don't want you to think it's your fault Bunny. We've just drifted too far apart." He actually took a moment to drop his shoulders and sigh. Theatrical as always, "Let's not drag this out and make it anymore painful on the both of us." His brows furrowed in faux- concern. "And Giselle is as much a victim in all of this as any of us."

 

Between anger and relief, Myka just laughs. It is a horrible hollow sound.

 

"This whole time." Relief takes a back seat. She is moving frantically, gesturing wildly with her hands as anger wins out when she finally speaks. "God, this whole time. How could you? And Christ, you let me turn down the job in London. When you knew, you knew how much it would have meant to me, to Claudia, to be close to Mom and Leena."

 

She grows quiet, "When you knew, there was someone else who really wanted me."

 

"Bunny..." There it is again, that look. Those slumped shoulders. The drama.

 

"Don't. Don't Bunny me." Myka practically spits. "I never lied to you Sam. You knew how wracked with guilt I was just for feeling what I did when I was working with HG. I even handed in my resignation so I wouldn't compromise myself or our marriage. And this whole time, God this whole time. You let me doubt myself. Like it was me pulling away."

 

"Were there others?" Her lips are curled in disdain. She waves off the question like she is foolish to ask it. His hesitation giving himself away. "It doesn't matter. What does any of it matter now."

**Author's Note:**

> Writing is war for me and I've just opened up another front. I cannot win this.
> 
> (In case it needed saying...Don't own anything pertaining to Warehouse 13)


End file.
